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After-School Special
2C-B
Citation:   Shaman. "After-School Special: An Experience with 2C-B (exp40622)". Erowid.org. Apr 15, 2005. erowid.org/exp/40622

 
DOSE:
T+ 0:59
25 mg oral 2C-B (capsule)
  T+ 2:00 10 mg oral 2C-B (capsule)
+0h: 25mg 2C-B (orally)
+2h: 10mg 2C-B (orally)

A group of approximately 25 of us gathered in our large house to take 2C-B together in a bonding evening to explore this substance that some of us had taken several times before and others never. I have only taken 2C-B at Burning Man before, so I was excited about the new setting, and the opportunity to share it with many of my closest friends. The evening started with an opening ceremony which several people led: brief education about the chemical, rules of the night and stating intention. Then we all ingested our 2C-B (varying between 15mg and 25mg.)

At about 2 hrs about half of the group took 'booster' 10mg gel caps to enhance their trips, or to get them through the threshold dose. Conversations and visual play continued in a very relaxed, introspective, and philosophical state until about 3 hr. Most of us had gathered in the living room and were enjoying each other's company.

Then we started hearing crashing coming from one of our group's bedroom (known as Looper to more accurately describe the experience) on the balcony that looks over the living room. My first reaction (as most of the group's) was that Looper was inspired by his journey to work on some project, a thing he would likely do that would bring some crashing noise to his room. However, the crashing became louder and persistent over the next 2-5 minutes and quickly changed from amusing to a concern. At this point a friend of mine and I rushed up the stairs to see what was going on in the room. Calling Looper's name with no response.

Upon entering Looper's room, we found him climbing on the railing to the balcony and up in the rafters. My first thought was 'After School Special' as I feared him jumping/falling over the edge of the balcony to the concrete floored living room 15 feet below. Stepping over junk all over the floor and grabbing him down off the rafters and railing was a challege due to his strength of grip. In addition, Looper's room was trashed as he knocked down his table and shelves in his climbing. He was verbally looping saying 'daylight, energy, fear, uh...' about 10 times per minute and he looked like he was playing, with a smile on his face.

When we got Looper down, he was struggling and swinging his arms wildly, crashing into different things in the room. I decided that he needed to be kept on his bed for safety reasons and we carried him over there. With his verbal looping, wander lust and flailing of arms continuing, the scene was not very safe and I decided that he needed to be 'restrained' on his bed. I instructed my helper the best way to do this was that we would just spoon him on his bed and if he struggled, to make sure that he was contained so that we were all safe.

Now, in a very sweaty room, we were trying to create a loving, safe environment to ride out the rest of the night. Several of our other friends, concerned, came up to check on us, bringing us water, a fan and loving support. At about 4 hrs the two doctors in the group came upstairs just in time. Our Looper threw up all over us, his bed and the floor. They quickly responded, keeping him safe from choking. Around this time the constant verbal looped changed a little in structure. It turned to something like: 'daylight, energy, oh 2C-B, that's cool, oh I keep forgetting about Berkeley... daylight, oh, that's REALLY cool.' Still, Looper had no connection to the outside world and no eye contact. I continued maintaining the loving safe environment, holding him gently with my friend, working on our breath and getting him back into his body by softly rubbing his head or his shoulders.

One of the greatest challenges of the night was that me and my helper who initially went upstairs were having to do a lot of work. This helper of mine didn't seem to be very experienced in working with people struggling on psychedelics, and looked like he was having a hard time processing what was going on, while keeping Looper safe. Helper's desire to help a friend in need seemed to outweigh his own struggle. Helper needed to be soothed and comforted several times during the restraining of Looper.

At about 5 hrs I called a switch in the restraining, getting one of the doctors to do it with me, giving our other friend a well deserved (physical and more importantly psychological) break. As Looper continued in his journey, his energy seemed to decrease, however, there were still bursts of struggling energy every so often. We decided to move him as his position was getting more uncomfortable at 6 hrs. When we let him up to get into a different position, for the first time he did not try and stand up or swing wildly. He sat on his bed, unrestrained in Rodin's 'The Thinker' position, continuing his verbal loops at about 10 times per minute.

At 6.5 hrs the energy in the room was subsiding, both me and the doctor were getting tired and Looper's energy seemed to be dwindling as well. All of a sudden between loops he say 'I'm really thirsty. I'm going to get some water' and gets up the leave the room. Suprised by the first contact with the outside world as well as eye contact, I help him sit back down and let him know that it would be safest for me to get the water for him. He complies and I return with water as he is back in his loops. He responds to the water, prefers it with ice and drinks a ton of it. He states he needs to go to bathroom, which he manages ok by himself and we all sit on the balcony outside his room.

At 7 hrs, returning from the bathroom, he pulls out his pda and states that he has 'a lot to do today.' My response is 'bullsh*t, do you even know what today is.' He doesn't, and I remind him that it is the day after we took 2C-B and that all we're going to do is hang out at home. It all slowly comes back to him with an 'OH...YEAH' and I prompt him in an exploration of other thoughts and parts of his looping. His 'inside' experience slowly comes back to him. He has little recollection of the 'outside' experience. He vaguely remembers who sat with him, but does not recall any of the events such as vomitting and being restrained.

I also check to see if he was on anything else besides the 2C-B, which he denies. We go to sleep at around 9 hrs.

EPILOGUE
Later that day I checked in with him again to see if he possibly he had any other chemicals in his body. He told me he was on Deprenyl (a MAOI-B), which he had previously found out would not interact with the 2C-B and could not have been the cause of the strange journey. Skeptical of what seemed like misinformation that he had, I did some of my own research and find out the MAO-Bs are the metabolizers of phenethylamines (of which 2C-B is one) and that inhibiting metabolization would very likely produce the effects that we saw the night before. (Just for reference MAO-As metabolize tryptamines).

Despite Looper's positive 'inside' journeying experience, I would not recommend mixing MAOI-Bs with any phenethylamine. I would recommend that if anyone were set on exploring these chemicals in combination, that they do it with dedicated, trained sitters to keep them safe. Looper's experience required a lot of support, work, concern and energy from his friends.

Exp Year: 2004ExpID: 40622
Gender: Male 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Apr 15, 2005Views: 53,286
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2C-B (52) : Difficult Experiences (5), Guides / Sitters (39), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7), Small Group (2-9) (17)

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Experience Reports are the writings and opinions of the authors who submit them. Some of the activities described are dangerous and/or illegal and none are recommended by Erowid Center.


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